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New Scientist Live

China and the US agree a deal on slowing emissions

CHINA and the US collaborating in the fight against climate change? Impossible, we hear you say. And yet, after years of public stand-offs, the world’s two largest planet warmers – with 40 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions between them – last week reached a ground-breaking deal in Washington DC.

Both countries are keen on quick fixes for greenhouse gases other than CO2. They will phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), used as refrigerants, and harmonise vehicle emissions standards. That will include smoke emissions from large trucks, which also damage human lungs (see “Air pollution kills over 2 million people each year“).

Observers said the biggest advance by the US-China Working Group on Climate Change was an agreement to work together to find commercial uses for CO2 captured from power plants – rather than letting it loose or storing it.

“The focus on carbon capture and utilisation is important,” says Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development in Washington DC. He thinks it could push forward schemes to use CO2 in cement. “Storing CO2 in our highways and buildings is smart technology and smart business.”

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The two countries also pledged to collaborate on smart power grids that can make greater use of intermittent renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.

This article appeared in print under the headline “An unexpected agreement”